The term kinran refers to textiles woven with gold threads. Ginran is the term used for those woven with silver.

Kinran may be combined with any number of other weaving techniques, but always
has the gold threads running the full weft. On occasion the gold will appear to
be a supplemental weft if viewed from the back. However in this case, the
floating threads have invariably been clipped.

Gold threads may also be used in tapestry weaves and other techniques in which
the gold is not carried from selvage to selvage, but these do not qualify as
kinran.

Older styles of kinran, with the gold laminated by hand to paper, appear to have
off white strands throughout the back when the gold is woven flat. These are
the back sides of the gilded paper. Many pieces may not show paper on the
reverse side. In this case the filded paper may be wrapped around a silk core,
or they may be either alloys other than gold, or synthetics. However, there is
a modern technique in which the gold is vaporized and adhered to a substrate.
In this case, the pure gold may be seen from both sides.

To feed the craft market with beautiful but less expensive textiles, an
imitation kinran was developed using mylar-like gold and rayon. At higher
quality of fabric for better dolls is also available with synthetic gold and
silk.

I have been collecting shibori work for the past fifteen years. Below are items
from my collection available for sale. The items on display will change
periodically. All are in excellent condition and new, unless otherwise noted.
If you have a specific request please feel free to email me. I’ll try my best to keep this up to date, but if something is already sold by the
time you contact me, I will do my best to find something similar for you.

Click on any of the image below for more photos, measurements, and pricing.

Pass your cursor over the images below for a description of that style.

Click on the spools below for more information about the gold used to weave
these pieces.